1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing wafer-shaped substrates.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a process of manufacturing semiconductor wafers, a number of processing units are required. Thus, the space of a factory must be effectively used by reducing the sizes of the processing section and loading/unloading section for semiconductor wafers. In addition, in order to increase the throughput, it is necessary to efficiently transfer semiconductor wafers.
From this point of view, the inventors previously proposed an apparatus for coating and/or developing a photoresist on a semiconductor wafer, as a processing apparatus of the above type (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,722).
According to this coating/developing apparatus of this U.S. patent, however, transfer members are provided individually for the loading/unloading section and processing section. Consequently, the structure of the apparatus is complex, the size of the apparatus is large and the space for installation is not effectively used. Moreover, since wafers need to be transferred between the loading/unloading section and the processing section, the throughput decreases.